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In Praise of George W. Bush

Following Obama's victory last night, a conservative analyst on CNN made the joking comment that we should remember that this happened on Bush's watch. The comment struck me at the time and on reflection strikes me even more as one of the more profound observations about this election.

It took a Republican, Richard Nixon, to overcome years of Cold War fear to open doors to a relationship with China. It took a Republican former prisoner of war, John McCain, working with a Democrat veteran, John Kerry, to reopen our relations with Vietnam. With minorities, I believe that Bush has done something similar.

For all the problems I have had with Bush's politics over the last eight years, it was always apparent that he valued and sought out ethnic/racial diversity in his administration. I suspect that Evangelicals, who in my personal experience have been similarly welcoming to all, may have helped form Bush's own attitudes in this regard. By appointing strong competent leaders such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, who also happened to be black, I believe that George Bush helped pave the way for a candidate such as Barack Obama to run as a Presidential candidate who also happened to be black. While Obama's election depended on overwhelming majorities among minority voters, it is important to note that a larger proportion of white voters voted for Obama in this election than has voted for any other Democratic Presidential candidate in recent elections. Without this support from white voters, he would not have been elected.

While this may not be the result that Bush would have preferred, Bush has helped to bring the country a long way since the Republican party first decided to exploit racial fears to build its Republican base. For his part in helping to move us towards what some are now calling a post-racial society, I am grateful to GWB.

Not old enough to remember the 60's, but the Republican party is no where near what it was in the 60's according to my history books. The republican base had become the old white guy party over the past few decades.... I think that is the base he was talking about.

What are you talking about? How old are you? Are you old enough to remember the 1960s?

Kevin,

I am even old enough to remember the 50's having participated in my first sit-it, at the age of five, in 1954 in Oak Ridge, TN. More information on "the Southern Strategy" may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy for those too young to remember. You'll have to excuse me if I didn't think mentioning this strategy was controversial since it was a pretty explicit decision pushed strongly by Nixon and "perfected" by Reagan.

What are you talking about? How old are you? Are you old enough to remember the 1960s?

Amen Kevin. This "Republican Party" is not your father's party and I turned 65 this year. I was "born" into the Republic Party from several generations. THIS Republican Party left me I didn't leave the party. From my standpoint with all the qualified people out there, these four is all we could muster as Americans, Republicans and Democrats. Shame on all of us!
I usualy have stayed away from these posts, but, eight years of stupity, poor appointments to key posts and no one watching Wall Street, geez!!!

I am only 55, but have also been a Republican all my life. You're right. This Republican Party is not the same as your father's. It's no longer racist. It's no longer only old white men. It no longer shuts out women. Thank God it's not the same.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

I appreciated YL's words and don't at all think it was a back-handed compliment or a passive-aggressive insinuation that the GOP of the past was particularly racist. It's an interesting perspective that never occured to me. I'm sure Bush would be happy with it.

That said, I totally reject the notion that Steve has come up with that the GOP was institutionally racist or anti-woman. The GOP has nothing to be ashamed of on either front.

I appreciated YL's words and don't at all think it was a back-handed compliment or a passive-aggressive insinuation that the GOP of the past was particularly racist. It's an interesting perspective that never occured to me. I'm sure Bush would be happy with it.

That said, I totally reject the notion that Steve has come up with that the GOP was institutionally racist or anti-woman. The GOP has nothing to be ashamed of on either front.

I didn't think Yardley's comment was back-handed or an insinuation that the GOP of the past was racist either.

In the 1940's and 1950's both parties were racist, it was common in America. Remember, the "party of your father" comment. And the best I can remember, it was not common at all for a woman to serve in high positions in either party. And I agree that the GOP has nothing to be ashmed of. The GOP has made great strides since then. This is apparent in President Bush's cabinet appointments. Dang Hew, you usually read a little closer than that.....

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

Amen Kevin. This "Republican Party" is not your father's party and I turned 65 this year. I was "born" into the Republic Party from several generations. THIS Republican Party left me I didn't leave the party. From my standpoint with all the qualified people out there, these four is all we could muster as Americans, Republicans and Democrats. Shame on all of us!
I usualy have stayed away from these posts, but, eight years of stupity, poor appointments to key posts and no one watching Wall Street, geez!!!

The Wall Street fiasco was started by deregulations by Clinton. When Bush tried to put the regulations back in place, Obama and company blocked the regulations in the senate to tighten up the mortgages several years ago. Obama and his party owns the mortgage crisis.

Terry Britton, P.E.

Engineers believe that if it isn't broken, it doesn't have enough features yet.

In the 1940's and 1950's both parties were racist, it was common in America. Remember, the "party of your father" comment. And the best I can remember, it was not common at all for a woman to serve in high positions in either party. And I agree that the GOP has nothing to be ashmed of. The GOP has made great strides since then. This is apparent in President Bush's cabinet appointments. Dang Hew, you usually read a little closer than that.....

You're right. My last post was poorly worded and not very well thought out. For me to have claimed that the party was never racist/sexist was dumb and ham-handed. I meant to say that in the context of the last 40 years (since the 60's that were referenced earlier) the GOP wasn't institutionally racist or sexist. Obviously predjudices and old habits were within the party as well as society as a whole, as you noted.